Hushed 'Hawk

Friday

Marshawn Lynch said yesterday it will be good to get back to football after the quiet-talking Seattle running back wrapped up his final mandatory media session of Super Bowl week.

Lynch took questions for about 7½ minutes during the morning session, his longest such stretch this week. He talked for less than 7 minutes at both media day on Tuesday and the media session at the team hotel on Wednesday.

"It's going to be good to get back to football," Lynch said. "Real good."

Lynch limited his answers to football-related questions, all with Seahawks fullback Michael Robinson by his side. Robinson joked as he sat down that he was just a prop.

Lynch's aversion to speaking with the media had become a major focal point as the Seahawks started their preparations for Sunday's game against Denver. While Seattle was getting attention last week for the comments made by Richard Sherman during the NFC championship game, this week it was about Lynch's reluctance to open his mouth.

His teammates were supportive of their teammate wanting to stay quiet.

"I think he shouldn't have to do everything that he doesn't feel comfortable with," Sherman said. "But myself, I'm fine with it. I enjoy it. I enjoy getting the message out that I want to get out, and I enjoy supporting my teammates. The great Marshawn Lynch, I think his game speaks for itself."

NFL SAYS CONCUSSIONS DOWN: The number of concussions in the NFL dropped 13 percent from 2012 to 2013, according to data the league released yesterday and touted as a result of its efforts to better protect players' heads.

Using information collected from team doctors during preseason and regular-season practices and games, the NFL also said there was a 23 percent decrease over the past two seasons in the number of concussions caused by helmet-to-helmet contact.

KROENKE'S L.A. LAND PURCHASE RAISES STAKES: In his long-running poker game over the Rams' future in St. Louis, Owner Stan Kroenke just laid down a new card.

A holding company tied to the billionaire Columbia developer bought a football stadium-sized piece of ground in Los Angeles this month, according to sources familiar with the deal.

The 60-acre site, home to a planned-but-never-built Walmart in Inglewood, Calif., has long been seen as a potential home for a would-be NFL team in Los Angeles. Now it's in the hands of a man who owns a team.

Whether Kroenke plans to move the Rams there, use the site as leverage in his negotiations over improvements to the Edward Jones Dome, turn it into a retail development or simply flip it to a new owner is unclear.

Kroenke, who builds Walmart-anchored shopping centers across the country and sat on the company board for five years, could not be reached for comment.

But with the entire pro football world gathered in New York for Sunday's Super Bowl, the news adds at least a little pressure to state and local officials in St. Louis who are working to keep Kroenke's Rams there.

A clause in the team's contract with the Dome requires it be a "first-tier" stadium — in the top eight of 32 NFL stadiums — by 2015. If it's not, the franchise would be free to leave St. Louis, or go on a year-to-year lease, by this time next year.

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